Tag: itsuwa

Carissa’s Coup Arc is brought to a suitably ostentatious and splendid end, as Index III truly BRINGS IT this week. As Itsuwa safely delivers Touma and Vilian to the gates of Buckingham Palace, Touma gives Vilian his typical spiel of helping out for “no special reason” except that he won’t abandon all of the people “running around for their lives”, trying not to lose what’s important to them.

Carissa awaits with Curtana Original, which she uses to summon a fleet of unmanned aerial fortresses. Touma has a bear of a time keeping up with her sword’s pandimensional fragmentation, but while he was thrust into the final boss battle far quicker than he’d hoped, he’s obviously far from alone. Kanzaki, Index, Amakusa, and Sherry all arrive in turn, though Carissa isn’t cowed by any of them.

Even a Saint like Kanzaki has trouble against Carissa and Curtana, while Touma has to time his right arm just right since the weapon has a brief lag between slash and effect. He manages to strike true before Carissa can kill Vilian, who uses her crossbow to rediredct the flash bombardment from Coven Compass to land a direct hit on Carissa’s position.

Unfortunately, it only gives her a couple light scratches; more will have to be done to defeat her, which means more allies must take the stage. As Carissa picks up the idea of bombardment by having bunker-buster cruise missiles launched on the palace grounds, elder Princess Rimea broadcasts a message bringing the forces of Knights back to their feet…including Knight Leader.

Carissa soon finds she can’t launch any more missiles, since Acqua has destroyed all military antennae. This is why you have a magical backup to a vital scientific device, or vice versa, but of course Carissa hasn’t thought anything through beyond “I have Curtana Original, I am invincible.” Now she has three Saint-levels fighting her in Kanzaki, Acqua, and Leader.

And then Mom shows up. Queen Elizard casts aside her own Curtana Second, knowing it’s powerless against the original, but whips out another magical treasure of the royal family: the Union Jack, which she uses to redistribute all of the power imbued within Curtana to each and every one of the millions of British people.

This essentially turns every British citizen into a hero in their own right, with the mandate to “do what they will.” It’s essentially a re-imagining of that iconic signal from Admiral Nelson’s ship during the decisive Battle of Trafalgar: “England expects that every man will do his duty.” Only this time it isn’t just England, nor is it just men.

With over 90 million now aligned against her, Carissa can’t help but hesitate for a moment, which is the one thing she can’t do. In that moment, Index (yeah, her!) delivers a simple incantation to cause Curtana to swing upward and hold in place just long enough for Acqua to launch Touma at it with his right arm. He shatters the sword and delivers a devastating punch to Carissa, and suddenly the coup d’etat is all over.

Unfortunately, Touma’s troubles are not. The beaten Carissa is confronted by Fiamma of the Right, who is there only to check on those items which he desires to possess: Touma’s own right hand, yes, but more importantly, Index. A magical item he steals before heading off to Russia was a kind of safety device that allowed Index to live a normal daily life despite having memorized 103,000 grimoires.

In the Tower of London, Stiyl, Elizard, and Touma look over a bedridden, unconscious Index. If Touma is to save her, he must get that device back, which means he’s headed to Russialand. No rest for the weary.

After that harrowing flight (during which Touma never answered the “beef or fish”, resulting in Index being served no food at all), Kaori and Knight Leader escort the pair to an audience with the British royal family, led by the very laid-back Queen Elizard (who carries herself more like a mafia don and would rather do business in a track suit) and her three daughters: Rimea, Carissa, and Villian.

The assembled individuals lay out the threats to Britain, both external (from France) and internal (a four-woman group called “New Light”). Index has been summoned to assist in the analysis of the magic used so that they can more properly locate the threats. As for Touma? Kaori doesn’t want civilians involved, but unless he wants to pay room and board in Buckingham Palace, he’s strongly “encouraged” to actively serve the interests of British peace.

That night (or thereabouts) New Light springs into action, which involves the four of them splitting up and taking up positions while carrying checkered magical storage cases. The clumsiest of the quartet, Lessar, nearly mixes her case up with that of a drunk at a pub where she’s enjoying a repast of fish and chips (good thing Index wasn’t watching), and ends up being chased by the always lovely Oriana Thompson, backed up by Touma.

Meanwhile, the New Light leader is cornered by Amakusa then chased through the London Underground by Itsuwa, before brandishing the weapons of Thor (though not his famous hammer) and slipping away. The two other members are taken down, so Touma and Oriana believe they only have to deal with two more.

They then learn that the four were carrying out a relay, magically transferring the true contents from one to the other. Before the relay can be broken by Oriana and Touma, Lessar completes it to a fifth case, which is held by Knight Leader, working for the second princess, Carissa.

The box contains “Curtana Original”, the powerful ceremonial sword wielded by Britain’s sovereign which contains the power of the Angel Michael (her mother only has “Curtana Second”, which presumably isn’t as powerful).

And so, Touma finds himself in the middle of a battle between British princesses and their allies for control of the kingdom, and with both Curtana and the legendary Norse ship Skidbladnir, Carissa seems to have the upper hand, having used New Light as glorified couriers.

It’s an exciting, action-packed romp in a vibrant new London setting where none the players, not even the royal ones (I liked their selfie with Touma) take themselves or anything else too seriously. This is all a bit goofy and ridiculous, but it’s also a hell of a lot of fun!

As Itsuwa searches the internet for a sexy outfit to counter Kaori’s maid assault, Knight Leader stands ready to instruct Kaori on how to act like “a proper English lady” (and presumably dress like one, neither of which appeal to her), while a chance encounter between Touma and Misaka results in the latter getting “overcharged” at the vending machine.

Touma comes home to Index with instant yakisoba, but their meager repast is interrupted by a call from Tsuchimikado, whom Touma demands to keep it short, and he does: “Get your ass to Britain.” A moment later a knockout gas grenade is thrown into the apartment, and Touma and Index pass out.

At some point between then and when we next see the pair, they were given a choice to board Tsuchimikado’s supersonic jet for travel to Britain, but Touma chose the more comfortable alternative of commercial air travel aboard “Air Bus 365” (which sounds more like a make and model of plane than a flight number).

This would be fine, with the biggest problem keeping Index fed and quiet, but due to Touma’s boundless misfortune, the airliner they happen to board has been infiltrated by anti-Britain terrorists with agendas related to heightening tensions between the magical forces of Britain and France.

When Touma discovers something is amiss when searching for (what else) Index’s meal (we’ll never know—beef or fish?!) the flight crew arrests him lest a panic brew in the cabin. One of the terrorists then captures Index and tries to kill her, but Touma manages to rescue her. It’s a tense, claustrophobic situation and the flight crew seems ill-equipped to stop the terrorists, leaving it up to Touma.

On the ground in Britain, Laura Stuart and her logistics nuns represent at least one of the groups trying to bring the plane down (in her case, allowing it to land safely on a closed-off country highway). But their magical manipulation of the plane’s fuel gauges are overridden and the terrorist gets the pilot to regain altitude, so Laura has to switch to Plan S…for Stiyl Magnus, making his first appearance in the trequel.

Touma manages to track down the first terrorist and punches him out, but it isn’t long before he realizes there’s definitely a second, armed terrorist in the cargo hold. He uses hot tea to expand the ductwork so he can slip into the hold undetected, just like they do in the movies! Unfortunately the second terrorist is less of a pushover and has a grenade in his hand.

That’s when Stiyl arrives, perched atop a second plane below Air Bus 365. He uses his cards to neutralize the second terrorist, scolds Touma for not doing the bare minimum to protect Index, then departs as quickly as he arrived. Hi Stiyl, Bye Stiyl!

Air Bus 365 lands safely at Edinburgh; this is reported on the radio being listened to by what looks like another new group of magical users who are about to initiate a plan that will “break up the paradigm that is Britain,” suggesting they’ll be a key part of the complex magical conflict to unfold in this new arc, with Touma right in the middle of it.

Kaori crosses swords with Acqua, whose birth name we learn to be William Orville, a former mercenary for the Anglicans but moved to the Roman Orthodox church. We also learn that Kaori, on her own, is absolutely no match for him.

His attacks have her flat on her back and spread eagle across vasts fields of rubble and debris, though to her credit she never stops getting up and dusting herself off, a resoluteness he admires even if he’s quite certain there’s nothing she or anyone else can do to keep him away from Touma.

As for Touma, he’s limping towards the battle when Misaka encounters him, and insists that he allow her to help. That might well have made the fight an easy one for him, but he declines the offer, and while she’s not happy about not being able to fight, she can understand there’s significance in him going it alone.

That’s ironic, since Kaori, who left the Amakusa church in part to protect her comrades, categorically can not stand alone and survive against Acqua; he’s just too goddamn talented and powerful, and the more beat-up she gets, the more his confidence in victory soars.

But he didn’t count on Kaori calling to Amakusa to jump down to the level of the battle and combine their powers to help her. Itsuwa was just getting done talking about how she and her group’s fighting was child’s play compared to the scale of a saint-on-saint battle (and it was), but Kaori doesn’t need them to defeat Acqua, she just needs a little help.

She gets it, and Acqua is sufficiently distracted in trying to bring the hammer down on all of them that he completely misses Touma slipping him below him, in the direct path of the attack, which Imagine Breaker nullifies in a very satisfying moment.

In Acqua’s moment of vulnerability, Itsuwa comes back at him with Saint Breakout and this time it works. The multi-pronged attack on him actually reminded me of the Avengers in one of their attempts to use teamwork and elaborate tactics to bring Thanos down on Titan. They failed, but Touma, Itsuwa, Kanzaki and Amakusa succeed: Acqua is defeated.

After a brief flashback to when William Orville left England, Touma wakes up back in the hospital, under the gentle ministrations of Itsuwa. The two get a little too close for Index’s comfort, especially considering she was by his bid longer.

Kanzaki wants to thanks Touma for his help, but is a bit squirrelly about it until Tsuchimikado breaks out a “fallen angel maid” outfit for her to wear. Unfortunately we never get to see it in all its glory, but it certainly makes an impression on Index, Itsuwa, and Touma! Glad to see the lighter side of Index closely follow the stern and serious climactic battle.

From there we’re shown the next threats to Academy City in Fiamma of the Right, apparently the leader of the Right Hand of God. While Acqua took out a pillar in the Vatican, the damage Fiamma causes attacking the Roman Pope cracks the dome like an egg. That is not going to buff out!

After Fiamma takes off with Index as his target, the Pope orders the fourth member of RHoG, the pierced-up Vento of the Front, to go after Fiamma. Of course, Vento doesn’t take orders from the Pope, but she’s going anyway.

Finally, we also get a glimpse of Mr. Academy City himself, Al Crowley, upside down in his office-cocoon thingy telling his computers to do various things relating to Imagine Breaker. Looks like we’ll have plenty of material to work through to fill the remaining sixteen weeks.

As a battered Touma recovers in hospital, Itsuwa is briefly overcome by regret for being beaten by Acqua so easily, failing so completely in her mission, and yet still being thanked by her charge. Tatemiya snaps her out of it by rattling her cage, and as the rest of Amakusa sharpens their blades for a rematch, Itsuwa regathers her fire and commitment to beat Acqua to a pulp.

If only it were that easy. While Itsuwa talks big and she and Amakusa have a deep bag of tricks including Saint Breakout, specifically designed to deal with saints, all of it is for naught, as Acqua isn’t just a saint, but the Right Hand of God, possessed with the angel Gabriel and master of both human and angelic spells.

Even Breakout isn’t enough to so much as singe his collar, and Itsuwa ends up taking a fall off the dome of the underground district and has her turtleneck burned off, leaving only her crop tank. The rest of Amakusa can’t do any better. With only them between Touma and Acqua, the situation is most dire.

Acqua is about to finish Itsuwa off, but someone shows up he must give his full attention: Kanzaki Kaori herself, there not just to bail out her former sect, but to protect Touma. Miss Half-Cutoffs exchanges words with Acqua, but as much as he’s said this episode, he’s really not interested in talk when it comes to Kanzaki. He wants to see what she can do against him. And so they begin.

Meanwhile, Touma wakes up to find Index dozing by his bedside, but as far as he’s concerned there’s a battle to return to, so he gets up and gets going. I really don’t know what else he can do considering how easily he was taken down by Acqua’s saintly powers, but who knows…when there’s a saint in your corner—even a non-Right Hand one—anything is possible.

Like a jargon-heavy book that keeps making you flip to the glossary in the back, the Academy City Underworld arc was so laden with groups, individuals, motives and goals that I had to refer to the Index wiki on more than one occasion just to find out who the hell some of the people were. As a result, it was hard to sit back and just enjoy the action.

So thank goodness this week is a far simpler Index episode (even though it takes a number of turns), featuring a straightforward plot and familiar, beloved characters. It certainly starts out where Kamijou Touma would prefer to be, at school, where the most fraught action is being chased by a burly teacher when he and Tsuchimikado are the only two able to escape school to get to the convenience store for the lunch they want.

For all the misfortune swirling around him, Touma does catch a break every once in a while. In this case, a very lovely break in the person of Itsuwa, who mistakes Saigo for a hostile and takes him out for Touma. She’s come to A.C. to serve as Touma’s bodyguard due to stirrings that the powerful Saint Acqua of the Back (or Rear) is going to target him.

The rest of Amakusa is there to back Itsuwa up, as well as to try to get her to pull the trigger on Touma, whom she apparently likes. In this venture it’s Itsuwa who is more unfortunate, since she must contend with the jealousy of Biribiri, who makes a welcome return to the show. Misaka was actually concerned that Touma had amnesia, only to catch him deep in Itsuwa’s bust. Thankfully, Touma manages to keep Itsuwa from mistaking her for a hostile…even though she kinda is!

This also marks the rare Index III episode that actually has sizable portions of Index in it, as she watches with concern as Itsuwa enters her and Touma’s home, buys the loyalty of Sphinx with some high-quality bonito, and starts making dinner.

Like living a simple high school life with occasionally exciting lunch runs, just seeing a girl in his kitchen making dinner gives him no end of joy. The fact that Itsuwa is acting like a proper house guest and helping out exposes how comparatively little his other guest Index does.

Of course, the reason Index doesn’t help out is that her help often only causes more work, such as when she pours an entire bottle of drain cleaner down the shower and almost causes a fire.

Itsuwa cuts off their ensuing dust-up, rents a motorcycle and sidecar, and takes Touma and Index to a splendid public bathhouse in the 22nd School District, which is entirely underground yet has a giant screen in its “sky” projecting the real sky. It’s a really beautiful motorcycle ride that shows yet another side of the sprawling city.

Naturally, Misaka ends up in the same bath as Index and Itsuwa, and as Itsuwa clumsily tries to explain how Touma came to end up in her breasts she then becomes the target of Index’s ire, while Biribiri stews until she overheats and a medical team with a stretcher has to be called.

I presume Misaka had to be temporarily taken out of comission in order to lend more peril to the final act of the episode. Touma and Itsuwa go on what could be construed as a romantic evening constitutional, but once they reach the bridge (Touma and bridges don’t mix!), Acqua suddenly appears, and wastes no time mopping the floor with the both of them.

Itsuwa is a strong and honorable bodyguard, but she simply has no chance against a Saint, and her restoration spells have limited effect on Touma due to his right arm. About that arm: Acqua will let him live if he cuts it off and gives it to him. He couldn’t care less about Kamijou Touma, he wants Imagine Breaker taken out of the equation of church and global affairs.

In his surpassing charity, Acqua doesn’t simply take what he wants, even though he’s certainly capable of doing so (unless Imagine Breaker somehow prevents the arm from being separated from Touma’s body). He gives Touma one day to decide whether he’ll give it up willingly, or die. And since Itsuwa is his sworn bodyguard, she and the rest of Amakusa will certainly die defending him before he does.

So yeah, a Saint with the Right Hand of God either wants Touma’s arm or his life, and Itsuwa alone won’t be enough to stop him. Like I said, straightforward! I imagine one needs a Saint to fight a Saint, so we’ll see if Kanzaki enters the fray…not to mention Misaka once she recovers from overheating in the bath.

I realize Index is shounen, and a lot of chatter and explanation of tactics is par for the course, but by God there seemed to be a lot of it this week! Much is made about Terra of the Left’s “Precedence” ability, but as a member of the Right Hand of God, neither his presence or his abilities evoke terror. One big problem is it just takes so goddamn long for him to spit out the various incantations that give one thing (like flour) precedence over another (stone, metal, flesh, etc.).

Terra’s seiyu is the venerable Ootsuka Houchuu, but saddling the old man with explaining his attacks and making him say “Precedence: X higher, Y lower” every time he attacks just slows the battle way down to the point where when he gives Touma and Itsuwa “ten seconds” to attack or run, I had to laugh out loud; Dude, you’ve given them over half an hour!

Touma and Itsuwa eventually end up with Tsuchimikado, but only for a hot minute, as they split up again so he can face down some of the invading Academy City Powered Suits. Again, much of the battle is spent with him talking, explaining how he’s going to bring the suits down.

Two other weird little details: when Touma calls Misaka to ask if Avignon’s in the news (which it most definitely is), they didn’t bother to add a “phone filter” to Misaka’s voice, making it sound like she’s there in the Papal Palace with him. Not only that, for a kid who can’t always afford food, he’s racking up quite an international call charge leaving his phone on the hook!

If it sounds like I’m nitpicking, well, I am, but only because the show is so consumed with explaining every, attack, effect, and motive, it all kinda ends up muddling together into a gray mass that makes it easy to be distracted to the little things like the sound Misaka’s voice or Touma’s phone bill.

And at the end of the day, Terra and his attack just aren’t that impressive; certainly not as much as Imagine Breaker (even though Touma either forgot its true power or wants confirmation from Terra). Touma punches Terra a couple times, and then destroys the Document of C when he touches it with his right hand.

Back in the Tower of London, Lidvia continues explaining how the Right Hand of God wants to not only gain the power of angels, but gain equivalency with God himself and even surpass him. Such a lofty yet abstract goal is akin to Jafar’s final wish to the Genie in Aladdin: becoming an all-powerful genie. Sure, you can juggle planets in your hands, but to what end? At what point do you have enough power?

I’m not sure, and neither is the show. The Right Hand of God are simply Bad Guys, and Touma, Misaka, Itsuwa, etc. are the Good Guys. Spending the better part of two episodes on Terra feels even more pointless when we learn the RHG isn’t even really a united force; after having a chat with Terra, Acqua rips a column of the vatican off its mounts and crushes him with it.

Besides being a needlessly destructive way to kill someone, it was also a “twist” that had absolutely no effect on me. Acqua is an even more boring dude then Terra, who at least had a certain joie de vivre about him. Meanwhile, the second straight episode ends with Misaka just hanging out in her dorm, doing nothing. Not a rousing start!

As Stiyl interrogates Lidvia and Biagio in the Tower of London (er, whoever they are), Touma lands in the Rhône River, right by the Pont Saint-Bénézet. Fortunately for him, an ally is on that bridge and jumps in the drink to save him.

That ally is the kind and lovely Itsuwa of the Amakusa Sect, who must change into skimpier clothes when her outfit is soaked by the rescue, leading to a couple of awkward scenes between her and Touma.

What connects Stiyl’s interrogation and Touma and Itsuwa’s advrentures in Avignon are The Right Hand of God, a group of individuals who have apparently successfully purged themselves of most of the original sin inherent in all humans, giving them some angelic powers.

Touma also learns that the Document of C is officially the reason for the demonstrations. Whomever has the relic wields more power than a president with Twitter, able to mold the masses into believing whatever they say, even if there’s no proof to back it up. In this case, they are being told the Academy City is evil and the source of all their ills.

Touma teams up with Itsuwa to locate the geoducts being used to remotely control the relic from the Vatican. In the process we once again witness the unique and charming Amakusa tradition of hiding magic in ordinary everyday objects like bottled water…or underwear.

Itsuwa’s attempts to render a geoduct inoperable are interrupted by a member of the Right Hand of God calling himself Terra of the Left. Despite the earthy name his attacks seem to be wind-based, but Itsuwa dodges and Touma nullifies the strikes with his Imagine Breaker.

Of course, it’s the same age-old problem with Touma: his power is almost strictly defensive; he can hold off Terra but can’t defeat him. Perhaps the addition of Tsuchimikado to Touma and Itsuwa’s ranks will help break the stalemate.